iTunes

08/23/2015

I started Movers & Shapers: A Dance Podcast in June 2015. As an avid podcast listener for nearly 10 years now, I have found podcasts to be the easiest, best, and most interesting way to pass the time while working out, commuting, or in the kitchen. With comedians and public radio especially pumping out great podcast content these days, favorites over the years that have given me a love for the interview format have been Marc Maron’s WTF and NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. In 2007, having just taken the step to branch out on my own and start a dance company, I searched for a dance podcast on iTunes and came across Eva Yaa Asantewaa’s “Body and Soul Podcast." These interviews with NYC-based performers, choreographers, advocates, and experts were exactly what I needed at that time: I instantly felt more connected to what was happening in the worldwide dance scene and felt part of a timeless, hardworking, and affirmative dance community.

Dance community. Time and time again I come back to how important this has been in my personal and professional dance life. From close friends in my pre-professional high school training program in Pittsburgh; to years of taking dance classes and working toward seemingly impossible goals while pursuing BFA, CMA, and MFA degrees in the Midwest; to forming my own dance company and working with dancers and board members in Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and NYC; to teaching in communities across the world as a guest artist and teacher. The gratifying conversations, support systems, brainstorm teams, artistic acumen, mentoring insights – these relationships and experiences are what have made my career in dance seem possible, worthwhile, and meaningful.

I began the podcast to expand two communities – my own, especially as a newcomer to the NYC dance scene, and that of dance-minded individuals across the country. The goal of the podcast is to provide the dance community at large with an opportunity to hear from its contributing artists through personalized interviews. While guests are generally based in the NYC area, I look to interview dance-related artists wherever I travel or when artists visit the area. Each interview is done in person, one-on-one, and I am both interviewer and editor. As a newbie to the audio recording and editing world, I am currently transitioning from using USB headsets in the interviews to a (donated!) hefty set-up that includes a mixer, headphones, and microphones, each setup running through my MacBook Pro and recorded with the free-editing software program Audacity.

The types of artists one can expect to hear from include choreographers, performers, scholars, teachers, studio owners, artistic collaborators, and other administrative figures and leaders from the field. I see the podcast also as library of knowledge and a dance archive, a place to house the research, creative endeavors, and intriguing dialogue surrounding impactful minds of the dance field. Discussions span dance training and personal life; I try to reveal artists’ lesser-known stories along the way to finding personal success. I’ve heard how Tracie Stanfield approaches teaching 60 local and international dance students in a professional technique class; how being the daughter of two Holocaust survivors has profoundly effected the life and work of Carolyn Dorfman; and perspectives from Alexandra Beller on what it’s been like to be the one behind the “baby modern dancer” viral video. Each podcast I record is so different, yet without fail, there is always a moment, a story, or a way of looking at life and the world that resonate deeply in me. I am privileged to share these stories and conversations through the Movers & Shapers dance podcast.

PODCAST INFO:

THE MOVING ARCHITECTS presents MOVERS & SHAPERS: A DANCE PODCAST

with Host Erin Carlisle Norton

Release Dates: Every Other Tuesday

Download Available:

iTunes / tunes.apple.com/us/podcast/movers-shapers-dance-podcast

Stitcher / stitcher.com/podcast/movers-shapers-a-dance-podcast

Smartphone / Any Podcast App

Website / themovingarchitects.org/podcasts

Twitter / @ShapersPodcast

Facebook / facebook.com/moversandshaperspodcast

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Erin Carlisle Norton, Artistic Director of The Moving Architects, has a BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University, a Graduate Laban Certificate in Movement Analysis (CMA) from Columbia College Chicago, Pilates Certification, and received an MFA in Dance at The Ohio State University. The Moving Architects (TMA) is a dance company founded in Chicago in 2007 and relocated to NJ/NYC in 2013, creating and performing short and evening length works that make connections between bodies in motion, location and space, as well as historical and physical experience. Her choreography has been presented throughout NYC, the Midwest, and East Coast, notably at Links Hall (Chicago); Wilson College (PA); and Triskelion Arts (NYC), as a Gallery Artist with Pentacle DanceWorks at Ailey Citigroup Theater (NYC), Green Street Studios (Boston), and Dixon Place (NYC); and in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan with the US Embassy/Department of State in March 2011, and throughout Morocco and Guatemala in 2012. Erin has taught at dance studios and universities throughout the Midwest and East Coast, and as a graduate student was recipient of the Coca-Cola Critical Difference for Women Grant, Visual/Performing Arts International Grant, The Presutti Memorial Grant, and the Marriana Russell Technology Grant. TMA has also received notable funding from The Illinois Arts Council, The MacArthur Foundation, Essex County Local Arts Grant, The Driehaus Foundation, and Cliff Dweller’s Art Foundation. Erin recently received a 2014 Choreographic Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and resides in the NJ/NYC area with her husband and two-year-old son. Erin continues to research new projects in both community and international settings and to explore the use of digital technologies as creative and conceptual tools.

04/18/2013

I have been thinking today about how a dancer can be - techwise - the most streamlined. We can easily have our "stuff" everywhere.

Consider your music. I myself have music in iTunes on my home laptop. I have music in iTunes on my work laptop, and I have music on my phone. I frequently use music from all 3 sources to teach classes. This method, clearly, is not the most efficient.

So, as I think about a tech savvy dancer in 2013 who needs music, information, etc. to teach, market her work, and get work done at home, at the office, and on the road, let's consider streamlining. Can all of this information be "housed" on your laptop or iPad? Can all of it be housed on a website so that you can access it from anywhere if need be?